Marc Chagall French, born Vitebsk, Russia (present-day Belarus), 1887–1985 White Crucifixion, 1938 Oil on canvas 60 3/4 x 55 in. (154.3 x 139.7 cm) Signed and dated, l.r.: "MArc ChAgAll/ 1938" Gift of Alfred S. Alschuler, 1946.925 © 2008 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris

For Sunday, February 5th, 2012
Fifth Sunday of Epiphany
Psalm 147 

Does today find you brokenhearted?  Maybe you’ve lost your job, your spouse, or your way.  Don’t despair. There is a God reaching out to us who wants to bind up our wounds and set us back upon the healing path:

He heals the brokenhearted and bandages their wounds. . . 
He takes no pleasure in the strength of a horse or in human might.
No, the Lord’s delight is in those who fear him,
those who put their hope in his unfailing love.
(Psalm 147:3, 10-11, NLT) 

Marc Chagall speaks to broken hearts in his 1938 work entitled ‘White Crucifixion’.  Chagall was a Russian Jew watching his world crumble around him.  Communism was sweeping into his world from the left while Nazism wreaked it’s own havoc from the right.  The distressed figures in the foreground just want to escape.  Yet amidst all of this stands the constancy of the cross of Christ, in which the suffering of all peoples, whether Jew or Gentile, comes together where redemption breaks into the chaos (1).

Let the good news of the gospel bind up our broken hearts, for God is here, and his love is indeed unfailing.

Credits:
1) Chagall, Ingo F. Walter and Rainer Metzger, 2006, Taschen, pp. 61-62.

For Sunday, January 22, 2012
Jonah 3:1-5, 10; Mark 1:14-20
Third Sunday After Epiphany

God’s will is a stubborn thing.  In this week’s first reading from the Book of Jonah the text begins, “The word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time.”  What did God say this second time?  The same thing he said the first time: “Go to the great city of Nineveh . . . “.   God’s will in this instance wasn’t general but rather very specific.  Jonah had rejected God’s call the first time and ended up on the shore of  a beach, cold and wet, laying in fish vomit.  God may speak to us specifically in certain circumstances.  We ought to be listening so that if and when he does we are in a position to respond affirmatively.

So then this second time Jonah obeys and goes to the city of Nineveh.  This was a major Assyrian city located just across the Tigris river from modern-day Mosul in Iraq (1).   There was great “wickedness” (Jonah 1:2) taking place here.   God says, “Let them give up their evil ways and their violence (Hebrew hamas) (Jonah 3:8).”  Nineveh was known as a place of self-confident pride (2).   One inscription discovered on the wall of King Sennacherib’s palace says this concerning his conquest of Babylon: “Its inhabitants, young and old, I did not spare, and with their corpses I filled the streets of the city.”(3)  There was a “We’re number 1″ mentality.  To those of us who are citizens of the USA this ought to give pause.

The message which God gave to Jonah for Nineveh was stark: “Forty more days and Nineveh will be overturned (v. 4)“.  Before embarking on the trip Jonah called a couple of church growth consultants who went apoplectic when hearing what Jonah planned to say.  However Jonah had learned his lesson: he would say what God had called him to say, and leave the results to God.

Remarkably this self-confident and violent Assyrian city listened and response en masse.  Why?  It seems so unlikely that a foreigner could come in, proclaim this stark message, and have an entire city believe and repent in response.  There are several possibilities based on attendant circumstance.  First, the Assyrians may have suffered a recent military defeat.  Second, a major earthquake may have occurred in the region. Third, on June 15, 763 BC a total solar eclipse over Assyria occurred (4).  As we speak the gospel into our own culture we need to remember that we are not alone: God himself will move on our behalf to move our listeners to believing faith.

When the Ninevites responded in repentant faith God had compassion on them and withdrew his threatened destruction.  God will not tolerate evil and wickedness forever.  On this side of the cross, God has made us his final offer in Jesus Christ.  If in light of this, we persist in our evil, destruction will be the inevitable result.  May we therefore like the Ninevites recognize our own evil, repent both individually and corporately, believe in God, and like the Ninevites become the objects of God’s compassion.

Reader’s Corner:
Where are you aware of wickedness occurring in your own city whether in its urban areas or suburbs.  What might God be calling you to say or do in response?

References:
1)  Wikipedia, ‘Nineveh’.
2)  Expositor’s Bible Commentary, Jonah 1:2.
3)  Wikipedia, ‘Nineveh’.
4)  New Bible Commentary, p. 820.

Philip the Apostle

For Sunday, January 15th, 2012
Second Sunday after Epiphany

I’d like to share with you why I find so powerful the weekly rhythm of reading, praying through, and applying the weekly lectionary readings.  It is because every time I read and reflect I sense the Holy Spirit pressing me into his mold.  This is a good thing because I still need a great deal of pressing.  Yet how refreshing it is to invite something other than the secular culture to mold me in its image.

In this week’s first reading Samuel says, “Speak, for your servant is listening” (1 Samuel 3).  The irony is that Eli, the man who told him to say this, was unwilling to say it himself.  Eli knew God was there but this reality wasn’t important enough for Eli to care about being molded accordingly along with his own sons.

Will we be people who know what to say but refuse to say it (a.k.a. Eli’s)?  Or will we be people who wake up each morning and say to God as Samuel did, “Speak, for your servant is listening.”

Do you have a plan for your own Bible reading for 2012?  If not, how about committing with me to read the weekly lectionary readings?  The four readings together can be read in 30 minutes per week.  Yet I can promise you that if you commit to this, and do it with a heart that says, “Speak Lord, for your servant is listening,” you will be changed, and it will happen quickly.

Reader’s corner:

• To what plan of Bible reading is God calling you this next year?
• Would you like to join me in reading the weekly lectionary readings?  If so, what would be a good way for us to encourage each other?
• What has God been saying to you recently about how he wants to bless your life?

Scary, Scary Night (Photograph, Vanderbilt RCL site)

For Sunday, January 8, 2012
Isaiah 60
Epiphany

Have you ever had an epiphany? . . . a time in your life where you developed an intuitive grasp of reality through something simple and striking (Websters)?

As a 7th grader I remember playing drums with the junior high jazz band when Mr. Dominiak, our director, suddenly stopped the rehearsal, turned to me, and said, “Steve, you are going to make some money on those some day.”  I remember feeling relieved and surprised that he would stop for anything but a mistake.  This was my epiphany that God had blessed me with some musical ability.

Becoming a Christian often happens through something simple and striking. You realize you are neither alone in this world nor the chance product of random material forces. Maybe it’s a sunrise, maybe it’s a word of encouragement, or maybe it’s an act of kindness. The world suddenly isn’t all darkness, cruelty, and dysfunction.

This is what the Christian season of Epiphany, which begins this week, is all about. When the Magi saw Jesus they had an epiphany based on a star in the sky that something long promised and hoped for had really come. We think of these men as kings but the Greek word used, ‘magos’ , more likely refers to magicians (derived from ‘magos’) or medicine men. Given that they came from either Persia or Arabia they may even have been Zoroastrian priests. These men were not only unchurched, but un-templed as well.

In one of this week’s readings, Isaiah 60, the Epiphany of Jesus is foretold:

Arise, shine; for your light has come, and the glory of the LORD has risen upon you.  For darkness shall cover the earth, and thick darkness the peoples; but the LORD will arise upon you, and his glory will appear over you.

This transforms everything. We are not victims of circumstance but rather ambassadors of the greatest revelation the world has ever known. We have unique insight into the human condition, both in terms of what ails (alienation from God) and what heals  (God’s offer of forgiveness and grace in Jesus).

Let this week be an epiphany of what we possess in Jesus Christ for the good of our own souls as well as the world. How this dark terra forma needs more light.

What’s a favorite epiphany story from your life?

“Annunciation to the Shepherds”, Adam Pynacker, ca. 1620-1673, California Palace of the Legion of Honor

For Sunday, January 1, 2012
Isaiah 61:10 – 62:3
First Sunday After Christmas Day (Year B, Christmas)

Adam Pynacker’s “Annunciation to the Shepherds” appears as the header art for the Christmas season readings of the Revised Common Lectionary site.  I was surprised to find out that this was painted in the 1600′s.  It seems more modern given both the color template and use of light.  The glory of God is bursting into the darkness accompanied by all manner of angels, signs and wonders.  It’s quite terrifying for the shepherd and his wife who witness it.  She’s fallen down and he’s running for his life while their bull is charging one way and their goat another.  Is this not a metaphor for the chaos of the Christmas season.  If it’s not bulls and goats in a frenzy it’s Moms at the mall duking it out for a pair of Air Jordans.

Why would the angel of the Lord choose to make the first public announcement of Jesus’ coming to some shepherds in a field?  The Vanderbilt citation for this work contains this interesting insight into the status of shepherds in first century Palestine:

Shepherds were a despised occupational group. Shepherds could be romanticized, largely due to the status of King David, the once and future shepherd king…However, in fact shepherds were generally ranked with ass drivers, tanners, sailors, butchers, camel drivers, and other despised occupations. Being away from home at night, they were unable to protect the honor of their women; hence they were presumed to be dishonorable. Often they were considered thieves because they grazed their flocks on other people’s property. (Malina/Rohrbaugh, 93)

So the angel of the Lord comes to announce the revelation of the greatest of all mysteries in the Bible – the identify of Messiah – and makes it to the contemporary equivalent of a taxi driver and his wife?

Yet this is the beauty of the gospel.  God puts equal importance on each of his children no matter their present station.  He wants each of us to sing in our souls the way the subject of his redemptive purpose does in Isaiah 61:10,11:

I delight greatly in the Lord; my soul rejoices in my God.  For he has clothed me with garments of salvation and arrayed me in a robe of righteousness . . . For as the soil makes the sprout come up and a garden causes seeds to grow, so the Sovereign Lord will make righteousness and praise spring up before all nations.”

Note that God’s end game is not simply to save individual sinners but also to redeem the world in all its brokenness.  The prophet Isaiah now picks up where the former speaker leaves off and says this:

For Zion’s sake I will not keep silent, for Jerusalem’s sake I will not remain quiet, till her righteousness shines out like the dawn, her salvation like a blazing torch.

In contemporary culture ‘Zion’ may be best known as the underground base of the rebels warring against the Matrix in the movie of the same name.  Yet in God’s lexicon Zion is is the city of God in the new age.  It is the place where his purpose dwells without constraint (TWOT).

The significance of Christmas is that God’s dwelling with Man has come in a new way, in the person of Jesus.  The church, as the body of Christ, is now the place in which the Spirit of God dwells.  In view of the darkness of our world, and in view of the certainty of God’s intent to dispel this darkness with his light, may we as the church not keep silent.  May we not remain quiet, but rather serve as a blazing torch to the world around us of something new, better, and real.

Vladimirskaya Theotocos, Orthodox Icon, 12th Century

For Sunday, December 25, 2011
Nativity of the Lord, Proper 1
(Isaiah 9, Psalm 96, Luke 2, Titus 2)

“The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of deep darkness a light has dawned.”  So starts Isaiah 9:2.  We Christians were once “people walking in darkness.”  We were those “living in the land of deep darkness“.  This latter phrase could also be translated “living in the land of the shadow of death.”  But while this was true of us now a light has dawned.    This is why we light up our homes at Christmas.  As our exterior illumination dispels the darkness of December so does the presence of Jesus dispel the shadow of death that once reigned.

Christmas has always been a difficult time for me emotionally.  It’s because of the trauma I lived through as a child as we struggled to cope with my Mom’s mental illness.  I’ve come a long way in terms of being able to enjoy  the holiday, but for me, the light has only dawned.  We’re far from noontime.  Yet this is okay.  The important thing is that the light has dawned and will only get brighter as I continue on this journey with Jesus.

Psalm 96 encourages us to “worship the Lord in holy splendor.”  What might “holy splendor” really look like in my local church?  My mind immediately goes to the beautiful cathedrals I have experienced in both Russia and right here in Milwaukee.  Yet the wise men who were with Jesus had no cathedral and yet certainly there was “holy splendor” in their worship of the baby Jesus, despite the straw all around.  They brought frankincense and myrrh.  Have you ever worshipped amidst the aroma of frankincense and myrrh?  A personal confession: I burn these as incense at home and find them wonderfully calming, affirming, and stimulating.  Bring some to your pastor.  Enjoy some together: might this be a way to bring some holy splendor into your Christmas worship?

What a joy as well to read Luke 2 this week.  I call this the Linus chapter, because having seen Charlie Brown’s Christmas so many times, I can’t seem to hear the words any other way.  ”Do not be afraid; for see – I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people; to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.”  No matter who is speaking them these are good words indeed, so Linus, thank you!

This week’s final reading, Titus 2, proclaims clearly and wonderfully what Christmas ought to mean for each of us who have come to the manger: “For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all, training us to renounce impiety and wordly passions, and in the present age to live lives that are self-controlled, upright, and godly.”  What a far cry from the vision of the world, which might sound like this: “For Hollywood has appeared, calling us to live lives that are self-actualized, glamorous, and glitzy.”  The problem: once the sugar high wears off all we’re left with is lives that are “self-indulgent, superficial, and vapid.”  Are you ready for something different?  Let the light of Jesus dawn.

Point to ponder:
You are standing by the manger.  You look into the baby Jesus eyes.  He looks back.  In this moment, what is God saying to you?  How can the light of Jesus grow a little brighter in your life this week?

The Annunciation
Sandro Botticelli 1489

For Sunday December 18th, 2011 
Year B, Fourth Sunday of Advent (2 Sam. 7, Psalm 89, Luke 1, Romans 16)

I’ve always enjoyed the scene of King David settling into his house.  God has given him rest from all of his enemies and suddenly it occurs to him: “I’m living in a palace of cedar while God is living in a tent!”  David’s first impulse is to bring God’s dwelling up to the standard of his own.  God’s response reveals much about our own ability to presume upon God and simultaneously be blinded to his intention for us:

I took you from the pasture and from following the flock to be ruler over my people Israel.  I have been with you wherever you have gone, and I have cut off all your enemies from before you.  Now I will make your name great, like the names of the greatest men of the earth.  And I will provide a place for my people Israel and will plant them so that they can have a home of their own and no longer be disturbed. . . When your days are over . . . I will raise up your offspring to succeed you . . . and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever.  I will be his father, and he will be my son. . . (2 Sam. 7:8-16).

Who would be God’s son?  The mystery was first revealed by the Angel Gabriel to a woman named Mary in a town on the wrong side of the tracks, in Galilee, named Nazareth.  It’s as if God promised to send his son to save the State of Illinois and then did  so by making a promise to a woman in Milwaukee who would eventually give birth in the City of Kenosha.  Gabriel says:

You will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus.  He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High.  The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever; his kingdom will never end (Luke 1:29-33).

Where is the place for God’s people that God promised to David in 2 Samuel?  According to Gabriel and Luke, it is in the kingdom of Jesus.  Where is the kingdom of Jesus present today?  Wherever God’s will is being done.

This is a community into which Jesus invites each of us to enter, not because he needs us (which we might presume) but rather because he wants to bless us.  How would you like to be part of a kingdom that will never end?    If you are part of the community of Jesus you already are.

Point to ponder:

What do you most appreciate about the community of Jesus of which you are a member (a.k.a. your local church)?  How might God be calling you in this next year to further his kingdom through your involvement  there?

For Sunday, December 4, 2011
Second Sunday of Advent

The wilderness of uncertainty is where our culture has chosen to stake its tent.  It’s in vogue to be uncertain: to be certain is deemed arrogant and narrow-minded.  Of this thought is the Secular West, ironically, most certain.  The problem is this: while the wilderness can be a good place for the occasional adventure, it’s not a very hospitable place to live.  Hence do this week’s readings call us gently, lovingly, and compellingly to better ground.

This week’s first reading comes from Isaiah 40, which is a profoundly beautiful chapter of the Bible.  ”Comfort, comfort my people, says your God.  Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and proclaim to her that her hard service has been completed, that her sin has been paid for, that she has received from the Lord’s hand double for all her sins” (Isaiah 40:1-2).  The gospel invites us to come out of the wilderness and make our home by the verdant river of God’s grace, alongside which we have received from the Lord’s hand “double for all our sins“.

“The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our God stands forever” (Isaiah 40:8).  One of the most important roles of the church in the world is to proclaim the Word of God.   We get so caught up in the latest social developments, whether the Tea Party or the Occupy Movement, that we forget that these things, albeit important, are ultimately fleeting.  What is going to last?  What has lasted from the very beginning in Eden, through successions of the rise and fall of empires, up to this very day?  The Word of the Lord.  When we proclaim this Word, however imperfectly, we are grounding ourselves in something both true and enduring.  How a culture living in the wilderness of uncertainty needs this slake of truth.

Turning then to this week’s second reading in Psalm 85 we read: “Will you not revive us again, that your people may rejoice in you?  Show us your unfailing love, O Lord, and grant us your salvation” (v. 6).  What God wants is not that we would continue hurting, but rather to heal us through his unfailing love.  There is comfort, confidence, and strength in his redemptive purpose for each of us.   “Faithfulness springs forth from the earth, and righteousness looks down from heaven” (v. 11).  The gospel is like a cool spring flowing down a rock on a sky blue sunny day.  May this cool water and warm sunshine refresh our souls and bring joy to our bodies.

In this week’s third reading, Mark 1, Mark the evangelist begins his gospel by quoting from this week’s first reading.  He follows the quotation with this: “And so John came” (v. 4).  In other words, the voice of the wilderness has been revealed.  It is John the Baptist.  This John said, “I baptize you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit” (Mark 1:8).  When we come to Christ by believing in his ability to forgive our sins, the Holy Spirit takes up residence in our lives.  God marks our confession of faith with his own personhood in the person of the Holy Spirit.  Don’t despair, for if you have believed, the Holy Spirit is in you.

Finally, in this week’s fourth reading, the Apostle Peter sums up what the reality of the gospel means for each of us who believe: “But the day of the Lord will come like a thief.  The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything in it will be layed bare.  Since everything will be destroyed in this way, what kind of people ought you to be?  You ought to live holy and godly lives as you look forward to the day of God and speed its coming” (2 Pet. 3:10-12a).

Reader’s Corner:
What is God putting on your heart this week to live out a holy and Godly life?  How might your unique gifts and talents be used by your Heavenly Father to speed the coming of the day of God?

For Sunday, November 27, 2011
Advent Sunday

This Sunday moves us from the Revised Common Lectionary’s “Season After Pentecost” to “Season of Advent” and from Year A to Year B.  What this means is that we’ve completed our first of three annual sojourns through the Bible and are now beginning the second.  It’s a good time to pause and reflect: how has my life been saved or changed by the gospel of Jesus over the last year?  How this next year might my life be saved or changed as I deepen my commitment to him?  

The English word ‘advent’ comes from the Latin ‘adventus’ which means “coming”.  The purpose of Advent is to give us a reason to pull out all of our Christmas kitsch.  Well… sometimes it seems that way, doesn’t it?  What Advent is supposed to be about is this: preparing ourselves as the people of God for our Savior, the one through whom God would save us from ourselves and restore a world broken beyond recognition. 

This week’s first reading, Isaiah 64, moves us from Christmas kitsch to the cosmic significance of what actually happened 2,000 years ago:

Oh, that you would rend the heavens and come down, that the mountains would tremble before you! . . . Since ancient times no one has heard, no ear has perceived, no eye has seen any God besides you, who acts on behalf of those who wait for him.  

Mary and Joseph waited on God and he acted.  We may find ourselves waiting likewise today.  What if we really believed God would act on our behalf?  Take heart, because He did, and He will.

Yet while we wait expectantly we must also wait penitently:

All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we shrivel up like a leaf (a good metaphor for late fall in Wisconsin), and like the wind our sins sweep us away. . . Do not be angry beyond measure, O Lord; do not remember our sins forever.

As this week’s final reading, 1 Cor. 1:3-9, reminds us, our Heavenly Father has bestowed upon each of us who follow Christ boundless gifts of grace and strength:

For in him you have been enriched in every way – in all your speaking and in all your knowledge . . . Therefore you do not lack any spiritual gift as you eagerly wait for our Lord Jesus Christ to be revealed.  He will keep you strong to the end, so that you will be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.  God, who has called you into fellowship with his son Jesus Christ our Lord, is faithful.  

May this Advent be one in which we bring ourselves into the Nativity (“the birthing among us”) of Jesus, and in the wonder of this moment find the grace which can renew our souls and slake the thirst of those around us who remain utterly lost in a desert of despair.

“Christ in Judgment“, Florence, Italy (1300)

For Sunday, November 20, 2011
Reign of Christ
Proper 29

Are you feeling lost today?  “Lost, ah… no.  Just temporarily disoriented.”  Right…  Well… if you ever do find yourself lost, this week’s readings can be of encouragement.   They are about a shepherd, his sheep, some goats, and a destiny.  

For this is what the Sovereign Lord says: I myself will search for my sheep and look after them . . . I will rescue them from all the places where they were scattered on a day of clouds and darkness. . . I will tend them in a good pasture.

There is no place I would rather be than under this Shepherd’s care here in this good pasture.  How about you?  

In this week’s second reading, Psalm 100, we find reinforcement for the reality of the people of God as sheep under a good Shepherd in a very good place:

Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth.
Worship the Lord with gladness;
come before him with joyful songs.
Know that the Lord is God.
It is he who made us and we are his;
we are his people, the sheep of his pasture (vv. 1-2).

In this week’s third reading, Matthew 25:14-30, we learn what separates the sheep from the goats.  The sheep are the ones that respond to others in need – whether they be thirsty, away from home, sick, or imprisoned.  The goats are those who fail to recognize the face of their Lord in the presence of the needs around them:

When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his throne in heavenly glory.  All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people from one another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats.  He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.

The sheep will be the ones that saw the needs around them, saw the face of their King on the pang of the throng, and responded accordingly.  The goats will be the ones that also saw the needs but did nothing but look the other way.  Here is a haunting question: how many of us are counting ourselves among the sheep while merely looking the other way in response the needs around us?  

In this week’s  final reading, Ephesians 1:15-23, we read about sheep who have been empowered by the God who has put their Shepherd at his own right hand.  Hear how the Apostle Paul prays for his dear followers in Ephesus:

I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and his incomparably great power for us who believe.  That power is like the working of his might strength, which he exerted in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every title that can be given, not only in the present age but in the age to come (vv. 18-21)

 And why did God do this? . . . all for a bunch of sheep (a.k.a. the church):

And God placed all things under his feet (Jesus’s), and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fill everything in every way (v. 22).

The church in the world is a very good place to be.  May we be in the world what God has called us to be.

Please use with attribution.